Beauty Mountain Wilderness Area

Beauty Mountain Wilderness Area truly lives up to its name, with its dramatic rock formations and its namesake—the 5,500-foot Beauty Mountain—providing a stunning backdrop to the increasingly urbanized region around San Diego. Already a popular destination for outdoor enthusiasts, The Conservation Fund’s efforts here ensure that the area will continue to be enjoyed by the public for generations to come. Back in 2007, the Fund and its partners built on years of strategic conservation purchases to protect significant natural and cultural resources in San Diego County, California. Thanks to a grant from the state’s Resources Legacy Fund Foundation and a partnership with the Bureau of Land Management, we conserved more than 1,500 acres for addition to the Beauty Mountain Wilderness Area. Protection of these lands also helps with the protection of the upper reaches of Chihuahua Creek and its associated wetlands, which flow through adjacent protected lands.

The Beauty Mountain and Cooper Canyon area contains a wide range of important natural resources, exceptional scenic views and important habitat for many threatened or endangered species. The valley is rich in cultural and historic resources.

Approximately 55 endangered, threatened, rare, protected or declining species of animals and plants have been identified in this region of San Diego County. Portions of the lands protected contain habitat that can support many of these sensitive species including mountain lion, golden eagle, Coopers hawk, prairie falcon, San Diego horned lizard and northern red-diamond rattlesnake.

The protected lands enhance important wildlife corridors and landscape connections to the expansive public lands on their border, managed by the Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, the Bureau of Land Management and the California Department of Fish and Game. The properties we conserved were transferred to the Bureau of Land Management for long-term stewardship.

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Not the Usual Cute & Furry Animals

American EelPhoto by Charles and Clint Robertson, Flickr

American eels begin their lives as eggs in the Sargasso Sea, which extends south and east around Bermuda. Its a rare animal with skin that can absorb oxygen, allowing it to travel across land. Despite this trait, in many areas numbers of eel are declining. We recently helped the town of Groton, Connecticut save a historic property dating back to the 18th century. Although the land was saved for its historic significance, conservation often has many benefits; in this case, it also preserves habitat for eels that make their home in the waters on the property.

Coastal Tailed FrogPhoto by Brome McCreary

This relatively small frog—the most primitive frog species in the world—is named for it's big "tail" (it's actually not a tail at all, so let's take a cue from the San Francisco Chronicle and use the term "copulatory organ"). Despite having what seems like a master evolutionary development to ensure survival of a species, the coastal tailed frog has become a species of special concern, primarily due to habitat loss. They need cold water to procreate, and when a forest is heavily logged, the water temperatures can rise. So the return of the coastal tailed frog to our Garcia River Forest is a great indication that our sustainable forest management practices are returning this ecosystem to its original healthy state.

Florida PantherPhoto courtesy U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

Fearsome looking but no doubt beautiful, the Florida panther is a rare sight. Although it's Florida's state animal, the panther is an endangered species with only around 100 left in the wild. The biggest challenge facing this cat? Habitat loss. In 2011, we completed an effort to protect Priority 1 habitat for the Florida panther.

Gopher TortoisePhoto by Larry Korhnak

This gopher tortoise is a resident of Kanapaha Prairie, Florida, located near Gainesville. An ecological marvel, Kanapaha Prairie is mostly freshwater marsh and open prairie, fringed with centuries-old live oak hammock. It is part of north-central Florida's vast system of wet prairies, an important stopover point for migratory birds. We worked with the communities around the prairie to save nearly 700 acres.

Indiana BatPhoto courtesy U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

The Indiana bat, a federally listed endangered species, prefers to spend its days tucked under the bark of a well lit tree and hunt for insects along streams and wetlands at night. We have several projects that aim to save habitat for the Indiana bat: Our green infrastructure plan for Central Indiana mapped out ideal habitat and our Multi-Species Habitat Conservation Plan should speed up the approval of wind energy plants while protecting endangered or threatened species across the Midwest.

Prairie ChickenPhoto by Doug Dance

There are many subspecies of prairie chickens that live throughout the American west and all equally interesting looking. Despite having statues and festivals honoring them, populations of Greater Prairie-chickens have declined to near extinction over the past century—primarily because of the conversion of grassland to forestland and farmland.

Sage GrousePhoto Bryant Olsen/Flickr

Found across the western United States, the sage grouse population has declined by 90 percent over the past century and 70 percent in Wyoming. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service acknowledges it needs protection; but this bird is no small matter: Listing the sage grouse as a threatened species has big implications, especially in Wyoming where energy development—from gas to wind—is big business. So what can be done? The Fund has worked on several projects, including the protection of Cottonwood Ranches in Wyoming, that ensure the protection of sage grouse habitat. In 2012, we launched the Wyoming Sage Grouse Conservation Campaign to conserve key sage grouse habitat on working ranches statewide.

San Diego Horned LizardPhoto by Ben Lowe/Flickr

San Diego is known for its beautiful beaches, but there is more to this coastal ecosystem than just sand and surf: Other landscapes, such as coastal sage brush and forest habitat, are critical to maintaining the integrity of the ecosystem. A number of threatened species make their home in this ecosystem of coastal sage scrub, including the San Diego Horned Lizard. As habitat is lost to development, numbers of this lizard continue to decline.

Sand Dune LizardPhoto courtesy U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

The Fund, together with the Bureau of Land Management, has protected 7,440 acres of land about 35 miles east of Roswell, New Mexico. This area is home to the sand dune lizard, which only occurs in southeastern New Mexico and is a candidate for federal listing. The Lesser Prairie-Chicken/Sand Dune Lizard Working Group, with representatives from conservation groups, the oil and gas industry and ranchers, plus local, state and federal agencies, developed a conservation strategy for the species that was adopted by the BLM in May 2008.

Timber RattlesnakePhoto by Tim Vickers, Wikimedia

This face belongs to a timber rattlesnake, one of the species found in Rocky Fork, a nearly 10,000-acre tract of land that was the largest unprotected tract of land in the southern Appalachian Mountains. In 2012, after a four-year effort, the U.S. Forest Service and the Fund successfully completed the protection of the 10,000 acres of Rocky Fork.